Nestmate Recognition in Eusocial Insects: The Honeybee as a Model System

Abstract

This review summarizes and evaluates the available information on honeybee nestmate recognition. Nestmate recognition is the ability of members of a colony to discriminate members of their own colony from others, particularly conspecifics, trying to enter the nest. Honeybee nestmate recognition is mediated by chemical cues that bees gain after emergence as adults. The comb wax in the nest is an important intermediary for transfer of cues among bees in the colony, resulting in a relatively uniform recognition profile which is carried by workers in the colony. Alkenes and free fatty acids are the primary chemical cues in the recognition profile. The ability of honeybees to discriminate nestmates from non-nestmates has raised the question of whether recognition mechanisms might exist to support nepotism within colonies. A variety of experimental approaches have failed to generate support for preferential behavior among highly related subgroups of bees in honeybee colonies. Other questions addressed in this review include queen recognition, response thresholds for expression of recognition, and sensory and information gathering aspects of the recognition system of honeybees. Nestmate recognition in honeybees is a valuable model system for the study of social recognition in animals.